Sarah Marie Thompson

Image Credit: wildandcreative.com

OYAMA - This Christmas you will be tempted at some point to browse the latest trend of colouring books for adults but before you buy off the rack, you should see the books from local artist Sarah Marie Thompson.

The long-time Okanagan resident has three colouring books for sale both online and at Kelowna’s Mosaic Books, Chapters in Kelowna and the Lake Country Coffee House.

Thompson wasn’t necessarily trying to cash in on a trend; she published them almost accidentally while working on another book. She found herself doodling while working on the book and soon she had a collection of pictures.

“It was just me and a black Sharpie marker,” she says.

Always an artist and a ‘creative success coach’ encouraging others to express themselves through art, she had long built a large following on Instagram and Facebook and challenged her followers to be creative. One of her challenges was for people to colour her illustrations and they began sending her coloured versions of her drawings. The rest took off from there.

“I have been an artist forever… and the colouring books were really just something that (I felt) creatively inspired to do in the springtime and I was not expecting anything of them at all but they’ve been a really huge success,” she says. "The whole colouring movement happened at the same time."

Image Credit: Wildandcreative.com

Colouring books for adults (that can be a lot different than adult colouring books) are one of the hottest trends in publishing with four of the top ten Canadian bestsellers requiring pencil crayons or felts.

While creating colouring books wasn’t on her radar, in many ways it was. She speaks candidly about her belief the world would be a better place if people had more art in their lives and a colouring book is a great first step.

"I see a lot of young moms colouring while their kids are reading or colouring and just lets them be more artistic because a lot time parents give up on the whole creative side of things and it’s good to have that back,” she says. “For me (colouring books) remind me of gardening. I will be out there for a couple of hours and realize hey, I haven’t thought about anything in that time. It’s super-relaxing."

You can find more about the books, and Thompson, on her website, on Instagram or Facebook.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Marshall Jones at mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015